New Michael Jackson album to be released in May

Nearly five years after his death, a handful of previously unreleased Michael Jackson songs are finally coming out of the vault for fans of the King of Pop to hear.

A new MJ album, XSCAPE, drops May 13 and features eight new songs.

Producer LA Reid handpicked the songs from Jackson's estate and brought in a handful of producers, including Timbaland, to do some "contemporizing."

"Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with. We are extremely proud and honored to present this music to the world," Reid said in a statement from Epic Records.

The label leaked a clip of the title's namesake, XSCAPE, and if a 16-second teaser is any indication, it's signature MJ that fans will find a comforting remembrance of the high-energy pop he perfected.

Big voices meet big hat

Pharrell Williams is bringing his massive park ranger hat to The Voice.

The producer and Happy singer will take the seat vacated by judge Cee Lo Green for Season 7.

This is the first announcement about who will sit in the judges' chairs for Season 7. So far, only Blake Shelton and Adam Levine have coached all seasons.

And speaking of The Voice judges, Shelton and Shakira will share the stage at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards.

The two collaborated with the pop-country song Medicine from Shakira's new self-titled album.

In addition to strapping on a guitar, Shelton will co-host the show with Luke Bryan.

The ACMs air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Kurt Cobain lives on in new comic book

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is forever living in the pages of a comic book, starting Wednesday.

Tribute: Kurt Cobain will cover the early life and quick rise to stardom of Cobain, which caused him much mental and emotional hardship.

Cobain committed suicide in April 1994 at the early age of 27.

The comic is part of Blue Water Production's Tribute series, which chronicles the life and career of select celebrities. The series has already produced comic books covering the lives of Paul McCartney, Whitney Houston, Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, among others.

A physical copy of Tribute: Kurt Cobain can be purchased for $3.99 at Comic Flea Market, while digital copies can be found on iTunes, Kindle, Google Play, Nook and other digital eBook retailers.

The comic book release comes shortly before Nirvana's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10 alongside Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt.

Billboard to feature new charts based on Twitter

Billboard and Twitter are teaming up to create Twitter Real-Time charts, based on the music being discussed and trending on Twitter.

"Twitter is where the music of the moment is discovered and discussed - every day, new songs and new artists are breaking on the platform," said Bob Moczydlowsky, Twitter's head of music, in an interview with Billboard. "We're partnering with Billboard to create a ground-breaking chart to track the conversation around music as it happens."

The charts will be exclusively on Billboard.com and are the first real-time charts to ever be featured on the platform.

O-Town reunites after a decade

In one extremely nostalgic move, boy band O-Town is reuniting ... minus one.

The band, best known for their song All or Nothing, announced that they will reunite as a quartet. Original band member Ashley Parker Angel will not be joining the reunion due to other obligations.

The reunited band will consist of Eric-Michael Estrada, Dan Miller, Trevor Penick and Jacob Underwood.

"We started this reunion purely for the fun of it," Underwood told Billboard. "We had discussed a summer tour to perform our old songs and finally give the fans what they've been asking us for the last 10 years. However, once we began working, what developed was something a little more ambitious. The ideas kept flying and we couldn't help but start making new music."